Why does Jake have to bang on about watching it on the Beeb all the time, getting digs in about Sky? Does he not realise it was the Beeb that didn't want F1 all the time? Infact the more I see of Jake, the more of a knob he seems.

I still detect a lot of anti Alonso sentiment from the commentators or am I making something else of it? The commentators seemed to be hoping Alonso would drop back with his tires. Then Brundle had a bit of a go at Alonso for pouting his lip after the race. Brundle out of all of the commentators seems to dislike Alonso personally for some reason or other.

I suppose it didn't help having the Australian commentators cutting out from the Sky team to tell us how great Webber is!

I thought this week's F1 Forum was naff to be honest. No fresh insight or additional information that complimented the main programme and cringe levels were running high throughout.

Haven't seen it yet. The post show stuff on Sky is quite long.

I have really enjoyed the Sky coverage this weekend. Having 2 ex stewards as pundits helps a lot as it gives a bigger insight as to whether drivers are likely to get a penalty and if so how much.

It's wierd, the first race they were pretty much ignored by the grid. Now it appears that they get first dibs on the interviews.

Simon has come on leaps and bounds since I last watched a race on Sky. He is still awkward, but he is finding his feet. His confidence has grown a lot. I think that the quali issues yesterday have helped them all quite a bit. Crofty, Brundle, Ted and Natalie had no problems with it as they have been there, done it and wore the t-shirt. For the others it was new territory. In most sports it is not necessary. They chucked Alan and Georgie out to get who they could.

Today they were mixing it in with the fans (admittedly Damon struggled a bit) but then Simon came into his own.

If you compare Australia to this weekend, it is now a totally different show. In fact, even going back to Monaco, it is loads better. I no longer have an issue with the Skypad.

The features were good too. I didn't know that the first purpose built race-track was Aintree. I know they used to race there.

I havn't got round to watching the BBC coverage yet but this is definetly one of Sky's best efforts yet. Nothing to complain about except Allan McNish making himself look like an idiot on the Skypad.

"Blablabla Perez not giving Maldonado space unlike Raikkonen blablabla, racing incident blablabla" 2 minutes later they show another camera angle of Maldonado losing control of his car on his own with atleast 2 car widths of space on the inside.

Why does Jake have to bang on about watching it on the Beeb all the time, getting digs in about Sky? Does he not realise it was the Beeb that didn't want F1 all the time? Infact the more I see of Jake, the more of a knob he seems.

Not once have I heard Sky mention the BBC.

Good point and yes he is an annoying little git who raises my blood pressure and makes me want to punch him hard in the face. You have to remember he's not an F1 fan, he's only interested in brown nosing his way up the BBC.

I had to stop following his twitter account because he's so damn arrogant and tweeting garbage like 'watching F1 delayed is just as good as seeing it live'. Wanker

Ignoring the fact more people will be watching the tennis today than the Grand Prix; more people watch BBC 1 than BBC 2, and there are a good few dim types who seem unable to locate their programme if its not on its normal channel. Hence capturing the wider audiences attention on BBC 1 first.

Wait until DMN publishes the viewing figures in the next few days. I'll wager that there will be a drop off in numbers when it comes to the changing of channels. It's happened before in the past and it's rather amusing to think that there are people too stupid/lazy to press the number 2 button on their remotes.

Good point and yes he is an annoying little git who raises my blood pressure and makes me want to punch him hard in the face. You have to remember he's not an F1 fan, he's only interested in brown nosing his way up the BBC.

I had to stop following his twitter account because he's so damn arrogant and tweeting garbage like 'watching F1 delayed is just as good as seeing it live'. Wanker

That is the really annoying thing.

It's the BBC who f****d up here.

Claiming watching highlights is as good as live it just an insult to F1 fans IMO.

Good point and yes he is an annoying little git who raises my blood pressure and makes me want to punch him hard in the face. You have to remember he's not an F1 fan, he's only interested in brown nosing his way up the BBC.

Of course he is, he's a BBC employee. What do you expect him to do? Still has a million times more charisma and suitability to the anchor role than the awkward Lazenby on Sky.

Of course he is, he's a BBC employee. What do you expect him to do? Still has a million times more charisma and suitability to the anchor role than the awkward Lazenby on Sky.

I don't rate Lazenby but you aren't comparing apples with apples here.

If Sky stick with Lazenby, it is far better to judge him next season than this. Regardless, the constant digs at Sky from Jake look silly and pretty unprofessional. People don't watch the BBC so they can see him.

I take it they've never heard of Brooklands then and that's just in the UK

Mandzipop has actually misrepresented what was said, Chris. What Damon said was that Aintree was "the first purpose-built Grand Prix track in Britain". Certainly true in the post-war period, although you could perhaps make a case for one or more of the original Donington Park layouts, while still bearing in mind that it never hosted a British Grand Prix. Brooklands did host British Grands Prix twenty years after it was built, but I don't think anyone would argue that chicanes created with a few piles of sand constitute "building a circuit". Ian Titchmarsh was involved in the film, so I'm pretty sure it would have been him who suggested the wording to Damon.

Good point and yes he is an annoying little git who raises my blood pressure and makes me want to punch him hard in the face. You have to remember he's not an F1 fan, he's only interested in brown nosing his way up the BBC.

I had to stop following his twitter account because he's so damn arrogant and tweeting garbage like 'watching F1 delayed is just as good as seeing it live'. Wanker

Good point and yes he is an annoying little git who raises my blood pressure and makes me want to punch him hard in the face. You have to remember he's not an F1 fan, he's only interested in brown nosing his way up the BBC.

I had to stop following his twitter account because he's so damn arrogant and tweeting garbage like 'watching F1 delayed is just as good as seeing it live'. Wanker

Agreed, he's such a smug git.

Also, notice how he's changed his twitter account from jakehumphreyF1 to Mrjakehumphrey?

He doesn't give a monkeys about F1, he'd be just as happy presenting athletics, gardening or ready steady cook.

Mandzipop has actually misrepresented what was said, Chris. What Damon said was that Aintree was "the first purpose-built Grand Prix track in Britain". Certainly true in the post-war period, although you could perhaps make a case for one or more of the original Donington Park layouts, while still bearing in mind that it never hosted a British Grand Prix. Brooklands did host British Grands Prix twenty years after it was built, but I don't think anyone would argue that chicanes created with a few piles of sand constitute "building a circuit". Ian Titchmarsh was involved in the film, so I'm pretty sure it would have been him who suggested the wording to Damon.

So to get this clear, the interpretation we're using is "first British race track built for the express purpose of hosting Grand Prix events"? In these days of single-use Tilke tracks, that's not an impertinent distinction...

A little strange to think that the circuit is still used for motor racing -- there's even an infobox on Wikipedia that parades its self-contradiction:

Closed: 1964 (Grand Prix full circuit only)

Then it wasn't closed, was it. Being left behind by the onward march of God's chosen category is not the same thing.

So to get this clear, the interpretation we're using is "first British race track built for the express purpose of hosting Grand Prix events"? In these days of single-use Tilke tracks, that's not an impertinent distinction...

Aintree was the first circuit originally constructed for use as a racing circuit. All the others at that stage were converted from something else.

Donnington was a set of roads from which a layout was used for racing (and converted permanently), Goodwood was the perimeter road of an airport, many more (Silverstone, Snetterton etc) was converted from runways.

Aintree was the first circuit originally constructed for use as a racing circuit. All the others at that stage were converted from something else.

Donnington was a set of roads from which a layout was used for racing (and converted permanently), Goodwood was the perimeter road of an airport, many more (Silverstone, Snetterton etc) was converted from runways.

Aintree was the first circuit originally constructed for use as a racing circuit. All the others at that stage were converted from something else.

Donnington was a set of roads from which a layout was used for racing (and converted permanently), Goodwood was the perimeter road of an airport, many more (Silverstone, Snetterton etc) was converted from runways.

Aintree was designed from the ground up to be a motor racing circuit.

I guess 100+ years of being a horse race course doesn't count - Aintree used the existing infrastructure from that making it possible to have grandstands available

But Brooklands was not designed as a Grand Prix circuit. The Grand Prix was run on closed public roads in France.

Or you could argue for Cadwell Park, which was opened for bikes in 1934. Hell, you could even add Oliver's Mount (1946), although at least part of that may have been on existing pathways or roads. Or Brands Hatch, where there were grasstrack bike races pre-war.

However, the point made in the programme was that Aintree was the first British circuit designed and built specifically for Grand Prix racing. Without diving into various books, I think I'm right in saying that all the feature races run at the Aintree GP circuit were for F1 or F2. The Club Circuit is a whole different question.

But Brooklands was not designed as a Grand Prix circuit. The Grand Prix was run on closed public roads in France.

Or you could argue for Cadwell Park, which was opened for bikes in 1934. Hell, you could even add Oliver's Mount (1946), although at least part of that may have been on existing pathways or roads. Or Brands Hatch, where there were grasstrack bike races pre-war.

However, the point made in the programme was that Aintree was the first British circuit designed and built specifically for Grand Prix racing. Without diving into various books, I think I'm right in saying that all the feature races run at the Aintree GP circuit were for F1 or F2. The Club Circuit is a whole different question.

I agree. It was designed as a racing circuit and that was what I replied to in the post quoted.

For the most part, races were run over a lengthy circuit of closed public roads, not purpose-built private tracks. This was true of the Le Mans circuit of the 1906 Grand Prix, as well as the Targa Florio (run on 93 miles (150 km) of Sicilian roads), the 75 miles (121 km) German Kaiserpreis circuit in the Taunus mountains, and the French circuit at Dieppe (a mere 48 miles (77 km)), used for the 1907 Grand Prix. The exceptions were the steeply banked egg-shaped near oval of Brooklands in England, completed in 1907, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, first used in 1909 with the first Indianapolis 500-Mile Race in 1911, and the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, in Italy, opened in 1922."

However, the point made in the programme was that Aintree was the first British circuit designed and built specifically for Grand Prix racing. Without diving into various books, I think I'm right in saying that all the feature races run at the Aintree GP circuit were for F1 or F2.

By the same token, could we claim that the Circuit of the Americas in Austin is [will be -- touch wood] the first purpose-built Grand Prix track in the United States? Like Brooklands, circuits like Riverside, Watkins Glen and Indianapolis had been running races for years, outside of French auspices, before the Grand Prix circus came to town.

When I'm sitting in the p1ss1ng rain for 97 minutes waiting for the qualifying session I paid to see get restarted, don't show me pictures of smiling corporate guests enjoying a free lunch on their free ticket in a dry hospitality suite with people who look like they couldn't identify a grand prix car if it hit them... thanks.

Ah, that was a rant I've been looking forward to!

Incidentally, did anyone notice that obese guy in the black shirt and beige trousers who followed Jake, Eddie and DC after the race yesterday? He was trying to get himself into every shot and seemed to be goading the crowd. It's not the first time he's done it either, I'm sure he did it back at Silverstone in 08...

Incidentally, did anyone notice that obese guy in the black shirt and beige trousers who followed Jake, Eddie and DC after the race yesterday? He was trying to get himself into every shot and seemed to be goading the crowd. It's not the first time he's done it either, I'm sure he did it back at Silverstone in 08...

That's something that razzes me off generally. A gaggle of mongs following around a smaller group of mongs in the bleak hope of being 'on da telebox'. It looked like a scene from Dawn of the Dead (If the dead all wore Mclaren hats).

Regardless, the constant digs at Sky from Jake look silly and pretty unprofessional. People don't watch the BBC so they can see him.

This person waits till the world feed kicks in at 5 minutes to go, when the commentary team take over, and turns off at the end of the podium when the "controversial" diminutive one and the oversized smug one come back, to actively avoid Jake "it's better than ever on the Beeb, even though half of it is truncated and tape delayed" Humphrey.

I had the misfortune of seeing the BBC's cost cutting measures for F1 meant they could do a "oh so amusing" Top Gear-esque intro yesterday. Oh how my sides were splitting, three pillocks pratting about irrelevently. Smug trios being scriptedly stupid grew tiresome years ago with another over tall and over short bookended threesome..

When I'm sitting in the p1ss1ng rain for 97 minutes waiting for the qualifying session I paid to see get restarted, don't show me pictures of smiling corporate guests enjoying a free lunch on their free ticket in a dry hospitality suite with people who look like they couldn't identify a grand prix car if it hit them... thanks.

Ah, that was a rant I've been looking forward to!

Incidentally, did anyone notice that obese guy in the black shirt and beige trousers who followed Jake, Eddie and DC after the race yesterday? He was trying to get himself into every shot and seemed to be goading the crowd. It's not the first time he's done it either, I'm sure he did it back at Silverstone in 08...

There is one fat guy I have seen on the TV (my guess is he is British) whom I've seen in a pink XXXXL Ralph Lauren polo who has stood behind the presenting team at a few races this season and last, constantly on his phone staring at the cameras. Not sure if it is who you mean though.

You have a ticket allowing you to roam around the paddock, a dream for many of us, and all yuo care about is being in the background of a TV shot. Sad, sad man.